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Join host John Rush in this insightful episode of ‘Rush to Reason’ as he engages with Mark Mix from the National Right to Work Committee. They delve into ongoing legislative efforts surrounding right-to-work laws, particularly the evolving labor landscape in Colorado. As 26 states have embraced these policies, Colorado stands at a crossroads with its new legislature proposing union-related changes. The discussion illuminates the broader implications for worker freedom and economic growth, drawing comparisons between right-to-work states and those still under forced unionism.
SPEAKER 06 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 07 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 06 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 07 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did! Get a job, Turk! You haven’t made everybody equal.
SPEAKER 14 :
You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference!
SPEAKER 08 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 15 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, our number three, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Mark Mix joining us now, National Right to Work. Mark, welcome back. How are you?
SPEAKER 14 :
John, I’m doing well. Good to hear your voice again. Happy New Year to you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Likewise. Same to you. And, again, national right to work. You guys focus on the right to work. We have 26 states that have that. There’s always things going on all around the country. We’ve got some things even coming up here in Colorado. We’ve got a legislature now that is on the docket. And you may have heard this. You may have not, Mark. But it’s basically on the docket to give unions more power whereby – Even if you are not in the union, you will still pay union dues, and it will be required from you to do so, even though you don’t belong to the union. That’s something our current legislature is looking at here in Colorado.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, John, that’s kind of an ongoing fight out there. It’s called the Labor Peace Act, and it was basically a compromise between the forced unionism that was imposed by the federal government and basically the right-to-work law, which allows the state to basically guide labor policy specifically about the forced payment of dues. So in Colorado, you have a vote to unionize And then you have to have a second vote to say, yes, you’ve got to pay dues to keep your job. And so that extra vote is what they’re trying to repeal so that once a union is certified and they get in to represent you, that you’re going to have to pay dues no matter what. There’ll be no vote. You’ll just pay.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah. And for those of you listening, I talked about this last week. That’s something that this legislature has talked about. They’re going to run through here, Mark. And I said that, you know, don’t be shocked if that doesn’t pass.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, you know, it’s something that the governor, interestingly enough, has raised his objection to. He’s been kind of interesting on that particular issue. I mean, everything else, he’s not real good when it comes to individual workers’ rights and those things that would have an impact on workers being able to choose whether or not to be represented by a union. But on this one, it’s interesting, and it has been an ongoing debate. And, of course, it wasn’t that long ago, John, that we were having, you know, we had a house that passed a right to work while we had a governor who said he would sign it. We lost by one vote in the Colorado Senate, and otherwise Colorado would have joined the group of those states that do have right to work. And you know, John, the important part about that is not only the individual freedom that a right to work law provides a worker to choose whether or not they want to financially support a labor union, who are very, very involved in politics, very, very involved in ideological causes, but it has an economic effect as well. And We recently did a comparison of the economics of right-to-work states versus non-right-to-work states, and the data, John, is getting overwhelming about how worker freedom translates into economic growth and economic activity.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, because you’re now giving them the choice as to what they want to do. It’s the old force versus freedom.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, that’s right. And you wouldn’t think there needed to be a choice between those two in America and this grand experiment in self-government, but here we are. Unions have gotten that power, have had it for almost 90 years now, their ability to force their representation and force the idea that you have to pay them in order to work.
SPEAKER 11 :
And the reality too, Mark, and you have talked about this in the past, the other thing too, and I think we need to be really clear on this, because those of you listening where you may be really in favor of a union, you might be a part of a union, great, more power to you, but the reality, Mark, is the majority of money that goes into unions goes back out to support political candidates. It’s not going for the rights and for the worker themselves. The majority of money is going back into political campaigns. Am I right or wrong?
SPEAKER 14 :
You’re absolutely right about that. And not only just to candidates and campaigns, but to organizations, philosophical organizations. And these organizations have radical views on social issues and other economic issues. It’s really amazing. When you look at, for example, the mayor’s race in New York City, two of the biggest funders of that campaign for that socialist that declared communist, Or unions. And I guarantee you, John, a lot of private sector union members are not buying that type of ideology or that type of philosophy, despite the fact that the money flows overwhelmingly in that direction.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. Again, I want to make sure I’m always clear on that, Mark, because you hear all of this, well, unions do this and unions do that and we need them and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the reality is… They’re not doing even what they set out to do way back when. And by the way, it didn’t take long. You would know the stat probably better than I, Mark, but it didn’t take them very long, even from their formation, to become very political. And they have done nothing since other than get stronger and stronger and stronger on the political side and less and less and less for the worker.
SPEAKER 14 :
Exactly. I mean, they care more about what happens in Denver or Washington, D.C. than they do care about what’s happening on the shop floor, in the workplace, for those workers they claim to represent. And that’s purely about government power that’s been granted to them to force people to associate with them first and foremost, and then after being insulted by being forced to associate with an organization you didn’t ask for, didn’t want, and don’t agree with, then to add insult to injury to force them to pay dues afterwards. is another just injustice. And the good news is right-to-work states are growing and prospering. And in those states, workers can hold union officials accountable because they can vote with their wallets about what they’re doing, whether it be political or ideological or just not paying attention to the shop floor.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and again, number one, I appreciate you guys bringing this to light. How do folks learn more about national right to work? How do they support what you guys are doing? It’s really important to continue to bring this to light because, again, as I say, here in Colorado, we are on the precipice of having our own legislature do the very things, Mark, that you’re talking about. And we’re at a point, we’re so blue now that it will be shocking to me if it doesn’t happen.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, John, that is an amazing story in Colorado. But, look, things you can do. If you’re interested in what’s happening legislatively, whether it be in Washington or the Colorado legislature, you can go to the committee’s website, National Right to Work Committee’s website at nrtwc.org. And if you have questions about your rights in the workplace, you can go to our foundation where we provide free legal aid to workers, and that’s nrtw.org. In fact, John, you and I have talked about this before. We represented a bunch of King’s super employees. That’s right. during those strikes where they crossed the picket line and they were fined up to $4,000 for going to work. I mean, these things are pretty hard to understand, but we’re here to help, that’s for sure.
SPEAKER 11 :
Appreciate you guys very much. Thank you, Mark, for all you’re doing, and thanks for taking time for us tonight. Thank you, John. Appreciate it. You’re very welcome. Have a great evening. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. Speaking of finances, Al Smith is there to help you listen to this interview. We’ll be back right after that, and you can find Al at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 12 :
TJ here with KLZ Radio, and I’ve got Al Smith from Golden Eagle Financial with us once again. Al, we are coming into a new year here now, and we’ve talked recently about getting a fresh look at our retirement accounts. So tell me what that means a little bit. What kind of stuff do you want folks to look at?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, a fresh look is not only looking at the past and seeing how you’re doing, but putting together what you would like to look like in the future, not just growth, but are things on track? Some other maybe non-financial things. Are there some other things that you have concerns about as you get closer to retirement?
SPEAKER 12 :
Very cool. And what do you do for folks when they come in? And let’s say it’s a potential client that you’ve never seen before. Where do you start looking with a new account like that?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, I have a pretty lengthy conversation where we dive into a timeline when they might like to retire and a few income things so we could get a handle on the amount of money they’re going to need to retire. What does that look like for you? Are you going to be traveling a lot? Are you going to be skiing? Are you going to be spending a lot of time at home? Because some people’s idea of retirement means they’re going to need $10,000, $12,000 a month. Other people, $4,000 or $5,000 is going to be very adequate depending on what kind of things they do in retirement.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s pretty great. Al Smith goes through a lot more than just numbers, folks. He’s about people and really wants to find out exactly what you want to do with your retirement. Al, how do people get in touch with you if they want to start that process?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, you can reach me at the office, 303-744-1128. My cell is 303-875-4572. I reply to texts and And if you’d like to hear about taxes as you get closer to retirement, there’s an event coming up January 10th at Arapahoe Community College.
SPEAKER 12 :
You got it, Al. And as always, you can reach Al from the klzradio.com website. Just go to klzradio.com slash money. Al, thanks so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, you’re welcome. Thanks for having me, TJ.
SPEAKER 09 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 11 :
And we are back. Thanks for listening. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Okay, City of Golden, which I’m in that area, so this particular article caught my eye. And because of the quote-unquote planned power outages that happened right before Christmas, and yes, I was affected by one of those, along with a lot of other individuals on the west side of town, Golden’s city leaders are now calling for Xcel Energy infrastructure updates after December planned outages. Outages. In a letter to Exile Energy and state regulators, Golden City leaders are calling on the energy company to move away from using public safety power shutoffs as a wildfire prevention strategy. So, again, I’m not a city leader in Golden, and I’m not really sure what’s going through these lines. folks’ head. I get it. They don’t want to see the power shut off, which, by the way, I don’t either. And I do think, and I said this during that time, that I think Xcel Energy was really just sort of poking the eye back at all of their customers. And they did that because of the Marshall Fire project. lawsuit, the $600 million lawsuit that was there. That’s essentially what they were doing because, frankly, we’ve had more severe weather since that they didn’t shut power off for. So my feeling is that was really just a, hey, we’re going to poke you guys in the eye. This is what happens when you sue us. City of Golden, I get. They want their power to be on. There were a bunch of merchants in the downtown Golden area that were hurt by this, restaurants and so on. And while I am sympathetic, because, again, I was a part of this, I think I can speak to this probably as well as anybody can because it affected me directly. just like it did these individuals. I didn’t have a business, so it didn’t shut my business down, but I was still affected, annoyed, had to sleep totally in the dark. I had the ability with generation and so on to keep some things running in my house, but it was a total inconvenience. And frankly, an inconvenience that didn’t need to happen in the first place, if you ask me, because like I said, we’ve actually had worse wind prior and aft that they didn’t shut the power off for. This was just Xcel Energy being Xcel Energy. Now, I talked about this last week as well. You know, if you really want to get down to it, go look at who runs the PUC. Xcel Energy has been allowed to do these things because of the knucklehead greenies, literally the communist greenies that we have serving on the PUC that were appointed by Governor Polis. This is why elections have consequences, folks. So those of you, I’m going to speak to you golden residents, you golden city leaders, who, by the way, you’re all lefties. this is a consequence of who you vote for. These are your leaders doing this to you. Do you not understand that? You’re calling for, you know, Xcel Energy to handle this differently. In fact, some of the business owners are saying, you know, you should bury all the lines. Well, do you have the $5 million per mile to actually make that happen? Because by the way, that doesn’t come out of their pocket. It comes out of all of us as customers’ pockets. So be careful what you wish for, pal. Dumb statement, by the way. That’s a statement coming from a business owner, by the way, that is totally clueless as to how things work. I’m sorry. I have to say that. This is an individual, and you can read the article, and I’m not going to name him by name, but this is a business owner that’s clueless. I’m sorry. Dumb as a rock. Nice statement, but you forget how this happens and who pays. But I’m going back to the Golden City leaders, and they’re all lefties. Trust me when I say that. They’re all lefties. I live over in that area. They’re total lefties. And they’re complaining to and about the leadership that they’re in favor of and they support and they’re like. So I’m confused. You’re not that dumb, are you? I guess Golden City leaders, you’re basically dumb as rocks. You are the very people that you voted for. You’re just like them. And you don’t like the outcome and the decisions they made. Yet they’re you. They’re total green nut jobs like you are. I went through who’s on the PUC commission last week. I read off every single name, their experience, and so on. And it’s heavily weighted towards the greenie side. There’s one lady that’s on the commission who I think is probably fairly level-headed. She’s still a greenie, but fairly level-headed about things. But she’s outnumbered two to one by the two other total lefty greenies. I mean, Marxist greenies. 100% Marxist greenies. And that’s the PUC in Colorado, the Public Utility Commission, appointed by Governor Polis. And yet, City of Golden, they want accountability from all these organizations, these agencies, including Xcel Energy, that this doesn’t happen again. Pie in the sky thinking, Golden. Again, you’re them. You voted for these knuckleheads. You get what you asked for. Sorry, I don’t know how else to say this. I’m not trying to be rude to the business owners there that have lost a lot of money with spoiled goods and so on, but you voted for this crap. You are to blame. Go look in the mirror. Dummies. I mean, I don’t know how else to say it. You’re just as dumb as a rock. You can’t figure this out, and I have to tell you how this works. I mean, again, we’ve got business owners in Golden basically saying, you need to just bury the line so this doesn’t happen again. Well, where do you think that money comes from, Bozo? Your rates and mine. So, no, I don’t want them buried. Sorry. Sorry. Now, I still don’t think, and I talked about this at that time, I don’t think ex-owners should have paid out $600 million. I think they were stupid for doing so. They basically took the path of least resistance that they thought was the best thing to do. They had a class action suit coming against them, or several agencies, I should say, not class action, but several agencies suing them, including some individuals, and they thought the best way to do that was to cash out. I think that was the wrong move. They set a precedent. They didn’t need to. I don’t know who was informing them of things. I don’t know what law team they had, but I would have fought that. I think it was ridiculous. There was no proof that they did anything wrong. It was an act of God, and they should have fought it as such. Now, I also went as far as to say during that time that whatever judge this case landed in front of, that knucklehead should have said, yeah, this is stupid. This is a dumb case. This is an act of God, and just dismissed it and sent it on down the road. That’s what they should have done, too. Any competent judge with any type of common sense would have said, this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. No, we’re not going to allow this. See you. Bye. We’re not doing this. We’re not going down this path. This doesn’t end well for anyone, including the customers. So, no, we’re not doing this. We’re done. But we have extremely liberal judges in this state. So, again, city of golden, you can’t be this stupid. And I’m talking to the leaders, not the city itself, but the city leaders of golden. And maybe some of you listen, maybe some of you don’t. I think some do. I live in that area, have a lot of listeners in that area, and I know some of these folks. You’re not that dumb. And I’m trying to be as nice as I can be, but you’re not that stupid, are you? You’re getting what you’re asking for and what you voted for. And now you don’t like the outcome. I mean, that’s just stupid. You voted for the very thing that you’re now getting and you don’t like the return. You don’t like what’s coming back at you. Like I say, and Andy says, and really a lot of us on KLZ say, elections have consequences. Here’s the consequences, folks. How hard is this? Shame on you. You should have voted differently. You should be behind different leadership when it comes to the PUC. You’re asking ex-owners to do something that, frankly, they can’t deliver on. So Excel, they said, basically, we appreciate the feedback from the city of Golden, but stand by the decision to prioritize safety. What it really should say is we stand by the decision to prioritize our losses, and we don’t want to have any more $600 million lawsuits. That’s what they should have said. Literally, that should have been their comment back to the city of Golden. We don’t like being sued. We know the risk is high because we live in an area here where you’re all so happy, and we don’t want any more issues. So we’re just going to shut the power off. So as I’ve said on other programs, this one included, this one, Ready Radio, Fix It Radio, you better get home generation. If you live on the west side of town, especially near any kind of open space, or if you’re in a pocket whereby you know that the power could be turned off, you should have some sort of home generation, whatever that amounts to. And I’ve got resources that can help you with that. I had my electrician out today looking at what he can do for me. And so that doesn’t happen to me again, because some of you were surprised that I was even at that stage. Well, you know, in my defense, I’d gone 10 years without a power outage. I know, bound to happen. I was still able to muddle through that. But no, I’m not going to do that again. I’m not going to muddle through another power outage. And I’m here to tell you there’s going to be more coming. As I’ve said before on those other programs, here included, it’s not if, it’s when. You’re going to see these happen again and again and again and again because of a $600 million lawsuit. And what’s happened now is you’re seeing other utilities do the same thing. It’s not just Xcel Energy doing it for the same reason. So you’re not going to get them to bury every line. And by the way, that’s feasibly impossible. It’s just not going to happen. You know, this particular business owner in Golden wants all of the lines along 93 buried. You know how many miles that is? No, it’s not going to happen. That’s really, really wishful thinking at the end of the day. It’s not going to happen. It always amazes me when they do these sorts of interviews and they talk to some of these people. I mean, do they just pick out the dumbest people they can to have an interview with? I mean, I’m sorry, but do they line them up and say, okay, you’re the dumbest interviewer. We’re going to use you. Not the smartest interview, but the dumbest interview. Because I’m convinced they take the dumbest of the bunch and that’s what they print. Maybe that’s the most sensational and that’s why they do that, I don’t know. But in this case, they picked the dumbest interview they could and put it up here. So, bottom line… Sorry, City of Golden, you’re not going to see Xcel Energy change anything about what they did. You have no power, by the way, as a city, as Golden, to do anything to Xcel Energy. You’re at their mercy as much as everybody else is. So are the businesses in your town. It’s nice of you to actually act like you’re doing something for your business owners, but you’re not. My suggestion would be if you really want to help your business owners out, give them some sort of a tax break if they install a generation on their own where their business can stay up and running no matter what Xcel Energy does. That’d be the best thing you could do as a city. Figure out a way through sales tax rebate or something whereby if they want to do their own generation and stay open during that time, which, by the way, generates you more sales tax when they are open, not closed, then I would highly recommend you do that. Rather than whining about Xcel Energy, figure out a solution to your problem inside of your own unit and handle it that way. But see, folks, what I just said, that’s too easy. That makes too much sense. City of Golden then has to be responsible for what’s going on, and they don’t want to be. They want to blame it on somebody else, like most typical city leaders want to. Roof Savers of Colorado, again, personal responsibility. Make sure you’re dialed in when it comes to your roof and the maintenance of, and by the way, extend the life of your roof up to 15 years. Talk to Dave about the Roof Max product today. Dave Hart, 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
All right, if you need legal help, by the way, any type, civil, criminal, you name it, Kevin Flesch is there for you. He’s my attorney. He’d love to help you as well. 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 09 :
Here’s why you need personal injury attorney Kevin Flesch on your side. He understands the way the jury thinks. In the context of a personal injury case, you’ve been hurt by someone else’s negligence. The idea is that you’re going to try to recover so that you can get back to where you were just prior to that incident occurring. What that really means from a jurist’s perspective is that you’re going to be asking them to award you money. So when we talk about fairness, we’re talking about six people that you don’t know. Those six people view the evidence and make a unanimous decision that will decide what the fair value is. When you’re the one who’s hurt, you have a good idea of what you think it’s worth. The question is, can you persuade those other individuals whom you don’t know and were witnesses to believe that’s what the case is worth? Kevin Flesch understands the way the jury thinks. Call now for a free consultation. 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 06 :
The best export we have is common sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 11 :
And we are back. Thanks for listening. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. And, yeah, as I was saying a moment ago, all of these city leaders and such, you know, great publicity, I guess you could say, for the city of Golden and what they’re trying to accomplish there. But at the end of the day, that’s a lot of gibberish that’s not going to go anywhere when it’s all said and done. John and Cheyenne, what’s going on?
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, John. You were talking about the XL project. public safety power shutoff plan. There was an article last week on a Colorado website and a podcast where they talk about utilities. I can’t remember the name of it. And they brought up why we up here have the same or worse winds, but we hardly ever do it. And one of the things was the law. In Colorado, your judge said they’re liable. In Wyoming, they have to prove gross negligence for them to go forward with a lawsuit. And your state legislature could get rid of this by just saying, you’ve got to say, all right, it’s got to be gross negligence. You’ve got to prove that, you know, they had a 20-year-old line out there and they haven’t looked at it since the day it went up. Something like that. You know, something that’s, you know, but if Excel’s doing everything they’re supposed to do and you’re still going to say, all right, $640 million, I understand why they’re going to do it, but I agree with you. They should have taken it to court. The problem is, if I remember right, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, that lawsuit was filed in Boulder County.
SPEAKER 11 :
I believe that’s correct, yes. Yeah. Yeah, and by the way, that would have been a lawsuit, John, where you and I know, and they would have fought this for many years. They would have probably, and this is probably what legal counsel told them, they probably would have lost in Boulder County. They would have then had to have appealed that, run that up the flagpole. It’s many years of litigation, lots of expense, although they’re not going to spend $600 million on that. But I think their fear was in the end, if they spend all of that time and money and then still lose, should they just pay the $600 million? They had some insurance that went against that, but they still paid out of pocket a pretty large extent. But frankly, John, the principal side of it for me, if I’d have been running Xcel at that point in time, I’d have said, yeah, no, we’re fighting this.
SPEAKER 05 :
Here’s the other thing. Xcel Energy is a parent company. You are still getting, technically, if you look up the legal operating entity, Public Service of Colorado is where you’re getting your electric from.
SPEAKER 11 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s owned by Excel. It’s a separate entity, though. What’s to say if they got found guilty to say, we’re just declaring bankruptcy for Public Service of Colorado. We’re done. California. Well, I can’t remember if Pacific Electric can get one of the utilities in California. When they lost, they declared bankruptcy. And I know this for a fact because I knew a lineman that worked there. They fired all the linemen and the next day hired a company that hired them all back as contractors.
SPEAKER 11 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 05 :
To do the maintenance. Now, a lot of those guys were not happy because they lost their pensions and all this other stuff in the bankruptcy. But they still had a job, which, you know, sometimes it helps. But, you know, the unintended consequences… If I was, unlike you, if I was Nick Scioto and said, we’ll see you in court in five years, all those people in the Marshall Fire that probably got a little bit of this settlement would still be in trouble today because this wouldn’t even be in the courts yet, and it’s what, four years? Five? I can’t remember. Was it 20 or 21 that the Marshall Fire happened?
SPEAKER 11 :
Two years ago, I want to say. Is that right, or was it three? I can’t remember, John. I’m sorry.
SPEAKER 05 :
I thought it was 20 or 2021, but I might be wrong, too. But it wouldn’t even be in court yet, and none of those people would have seen it die. Now, the lawyers, you know, they’re probably doing it to class action on contingency, so they’d be investing a whole lot of money. What’s to say Public Service of Colorado just goes into bankruptcy and says we can’t pay? What’s to stop that? Now, yes, there’d be more lawsuits, oh, we’re going after Xcel Energy. No, we’re just a holding company that owns them, kind of like Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway owns a whole lot of companies under that umbrella, but they’re all operated as separate entities. So there’s a lot more to this. I think Xcel made a mistake, and I think you guys are going to pay for it in Colorado. I also read an article, one of the cities, maybe it was Boulder, is bringing up the fact that they want to buy out Xcel and become a municipal utility.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, Boulder’s been trying to do that for years, yes. I think they did the math on it and figured out that it’s just not, you know, it’s cost prohibitive to do so. Yeah, but they’ve been working at that for a long time.
SPEAKER 05 :
Last I heard, Xcel made an offer, told them what it would be, and Boulder came back and said, yeah, but you have to finance it. And Xcel said, no, we’ll take a check.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
And they couldn’t get the financing to go out and buy the utilities.
SPEAKER 11 :
Which, again, speaking of proper role of government, that is not the proper role of government.
SPEAKER 05 :
No.
SPEAKER 11 :
And somebody said 2021 is when that fire was, 2021. Thank you, by the way, for saying that, 2021.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you. But here’s the biggest thing. If you look at municipal utilities, City of Colorado Springs, I believe, I know the city of Fort Collins because I know a person that works there. Anytime the city needs more money, they just raise electric rates because they don’t have to go to the Public Service Commission. They don’t have to file a rate case. They just do what they want to do. So when people think, oh, the government would do a better job, I beg to differ with you. Because just compare rates from like a stockholder held a publicly traded utility like Excel and a city run and see what the rate difference is. And you don’t have a recourse. Public Service Commission can’t tell them to do anything because it’s the city. They have no control over it. So there’s a lot more that people need to think about before the next time they file a lawsuit against whatever.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, John, you bring up some great points, and really that’s the crux of this, and several people texting in agreeing exactly with this, and also reminding us that, yeah, Xcel Energy and I said the PUC, these are both woke entities, if you would, at the end of the day. So they are not looking out for the best interest of the clients at the end of the day for the customers. They’re looking out at all sorts of other things, John.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and by the way, you guys that are texting that in, you’re 1,000% correct. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 05 :
And here’s the thing. Most people don’t know, oh, XL made all this money. Every one of those operating entities that they operate under that’s a state-regulated utility is limited to their profit. I know in Wyoming it’s 8%. They’re allowed to make an 8% profit year over year, and the rest they would have to do a rate refund. I guarantee that they’re not making that much of a profit, if you look at the books, because they’re taking that $640 million and rolling that right in as a loss. So when the people say, and they’re saying, we’re losing money, here’s the numbers, we want a rate increase. When everybody says, why? Well, you made us lose $640 million. We’re asking to recover that. So there’s a lot to this. Utilities are, you know, I would say, and yes, I’m a little biased being in the industry for over 30 years, but the best operated utilities are the ones that have shareholders that they have to answer to and also answer to public utility or public service commissions.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. No, I agree with you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Co-ops don’t have as many rules either on the public service commissions. I live in a co-op. They can raise my rates whenever they want. They just can’t show a profit.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. Correct. Correct.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, there’s a lot more to it than just beat up Excel debt.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and again, I don’t agree with what Excel did. I think, again, given that there’s been just as bad of wins since them, that they didn’t actually turn the power off shows that they were very premature in what they did. But again, John, for everybody listening, and I want to make sure I’m clear on this, and John, you know what I’m going to say here. They did that as a show of force.
SPEAKER 05 :
And they did it again last Friday in Wellington and Eastern Plains. I don’t know if it was – I think it was XL or the city of Wellington maybe. But northern Colorado, I was down in Fort Collins, and we drove back on Friday evening. Wellington was pitch dark and all that surrounding areas. So they did do some shutoffs in Wellington. And, yes, the winds were bad. We had 85-mile-an-hour winds on Friday along I-80. at the weather stations they recorded. So it’s going to happen again. It happened. So it’s just, like you said, be prepared for it.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, no, you’re exactly right. And I think that’s where, you know, that’s my whole take on all of this is, you know, and rightfully so, John. And I get it. You should be able to rely on your public utilities to supply proper power to you that you’ve actually signed up for and you’re paying for. But… All that being said, John, we’re in a day and age right now to where we have so many other factors going on and so many other things feeding into this that, no, you can’t rely on that any longer, meaning you better figure out a backup plan so that any time the power’s off for any length of time at all, a day, a couple of days, whatever the case may be, you better have it figured out as to how you’re going to keep things going in your household when that happens. Because, John, I know lots of people that either… lost everything in their fridge or they were moving meat around from one place to another because they were worried that they’d lose too much of it and they just bought a side of beef or whatever the case may be. Reality, John, is there’s ways to fix that and you better figure it out because this is not the last one of these that’s going to happen.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and up here either. We assume, where I live, I assume that when the power goes out, it could be up to 72 hours just because of, we’ll say, we’ll give an example of a weather-related outage. You remember that ice storm back, I think it was March of 21. We were out of power for three days because the ice pulled the lines and the poles down. That’s ice. That’s an act of God again. By the time, you know, anybody who thinks the power should be back on when poles come down in a day, She needs to go out and go for a ride along with a line crew.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, yeah, because as you know, John, there’s just a whole lot more to it than there is that. I wish it were that simple, but it’s not.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, you’ve got to dig the old pole out. You’ve got to put a new pole in. And anybody thinks digging a hole to drop a power pole in is an easy task, even with the digger truck, has a lot. It doesn’t understand. Because in these rocks in the Rocky Mountains, you try to dig a 6-foot hole. Well, they’re digging a 10-foot hole.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Right. Good point.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s going to be a big job, so everybody should be ready to spend 72 hours either on auxiliary power or without power.
SPEAKER 11 :
And again, in this case, the main story was because City of Golden, quote-unquote, is basically their leadership is demanding answers from Xcel Energy. They don’t want to see this happen again. They want other alternatives to what happened to happen the next time. And, John, I mean, honestly, I just have to laugh at those things when I read it. I mean, these are city administrators that – frankly, are in the same team. I mean, these are all woke individuals all on the same team, but they don’t like the outcome of the last game that was played, and yet they’re a part of the leadership of the game.
SPEAKER 05 :
Is Golden as bad as the state with the liberals?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, okay. It’s just as bad.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Because, yeah. All right. So everybody should know that next time you go.
SPEAKER 11 :
vote them out well yeah i mean like i said earlier elections have consequences and you know anyway the thing that’s the most funny about this thing is or about this one is you know these are individuals that basically are all on the same team whining about the way the teams run well you can’t it’s it’s the uh unincre unintended consequences of liberal policies Yep.
SPEAKER 05 :
John, you have a good rest of your day. You too, man.
SPEAKER 11 :
I appreciate it, John. Take care. Have a great night. Let’s do this. We’ll take a timeout. We’ll come back. Cub Creek Heat and Air Conditioning coming up next. Anything to do with your furnace, they’ve got you covered. Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning. Find them at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 06 :
This isn’t Rage Radio. This is Real Relatable Radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 11 :
We are back. Rush to Reason, Debra’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Alan, how’s it going, sir?
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m doing great, John. How are you?
SPEAKER 11 :
I’m good. Good to hear from you, sir.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, great. Yeah, so I just wanted to opine quickly on the discussion of the power outage because, you know, that’s my business.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And, yeah, so you remember the email I sent you about, you know, I said, boy, it looks like solar is going to be going away with the tax credits. So basically what happened now, they have a new agreement. It’s called a power purchase agreement where people can actually enter into an agreement to get their power basically from their sunlight. Right. They install solar on the roof. And, of course, you can elect to have that come with batteries. So, as you know, if you just get solar, that doesn’t help you any if there’s a power outage. But if you add in a Tesla Powerwall, obviously, then you’d be taking care of the power outage. It’s really nice. In my neighborhood, which is – I live about a mile and a half from you – You know, I got about 40 people in my neighborhood now have backup power, so they weren’t affected by the last outage. Nice.
SPEAKER 03 :
Very nice.
SPEAKER 04 :
That was a real godsend. So yeah, but anyway, I just, you know, the way to point that out there is called the Tesla Powerwall, and if you sign up for it, you get a $5,000 check from Xcel Energy, if you have Xcel Energy, for being, if you agree to be in their, what’s called their Battery Connect program. Okay.
SPEAKER 11 :
And I’m assuming the reason they’re doing that is they’re actually, you’re storing some of their power at times. Am I saying that right, Alan? Am I thinking correctly? Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that’s right. So, you know, they charge you triple for your power now from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. So if you have a Tesla Powerwall, one, that supports Xcel Energy because they now can draw your battery down when they’re desperate for power. You give them permission to do that. From 5 to 9 p.m., we make sure that your battery is all charged up so that you can send power to the grid during that time and not ever use any power anymore from 5 to 9 p.m. They basically charge you triple. It’s approximately triple of what they charge you normally. Good to know.
SPEAKER 11 :
Alan, I appreciate that. Good to know. Thank you for the info. That’s good.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re welcome, John. Alan, have a great evening. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 11 :
Reach back out. I appreciate it as always. And Alan Davis, I appreciate him very much. Okay. One other thing I’m going to squeeze in here. I think I can probably even come back and talk with Andy about this a little bit more tomorrow. But there is – this is on Denver 7, their website today – Colorado lawmakers are pushing to rein in surveillance, pricing, medical debt and kill switches. Now, I always say that, you know, number one, government doesn’t do anything effectively. They just don’t. And they never will, by the way. They want to be your God, to be your leader when it’s all said and done. And the reality is they’ll never do the things that they are trying to do. And I’m not going to go through every one of these on surveillance, pricing, medical debt, and so on. They’re trying to do some different things. The one that I really wanted us to focus in on is the kill switches for car disabling. They want to stop the kill switch. So they are warning about a growing trend in auto lending, vehicle disablement devices, electronic kill switches that lenders can activate after missed payments. You have your vehicle, you’re trying to get to work or take your kids to school, you get behind on a payment, and the kill switch gets hit, he said. This is when the legislature is talking about this. If you can’t go to work, you can’t earn money. Advocates say the technology is being used to unbalance the playing field between lenders and consumers, leaving some Coloradans stranded with no way to get to work or school. Well, actually, there is a way to get to work and school. Pay your auto loan payment. Folks, this – typical Democrats – Let’s push the blame off to somebody else. And here’s how I know this works, too, by the way, folks, because I’ve been around the auto industry enough to know that they’re not killing your car for one payment. They’re probably not even turning it off for two. Now, maybe there’s some rare exceptions, and I’m wrong in that, but they’re not even killing it for two. Typically, you’ve got to get about three months behind, 90 days or so, on your car payment before you start having any real issues. Yeah, you’re going to get some phone calls after the first month. You’re going to get more phone calls after the second. And yeah, by the third, they’re probably going to come repo the car or kill it. And frankly, they should. You know, what this particular legislature, this particular individual is forgetting is somebody loaned the money. In other words, they had a pool of money and they loaned it so that this person could buy a car. And yes, it comes with interest. That’s how loans work. And they’re wanting to make money off the money that they loaned. But when payments start getting missed, the collateral, you know, what’s backing up the loan is the car. So if you’re not going to make your car payment, they’re going to kill it and then come pick it up. Because that’s the only thing they have is recourse for the loan not being paid. But as usual, we now have legislature, legislators I should say, that want to abandon or kill the kill switch so that these particular lenders can’t do it. Now here’s what’s going to happen if this does in fact pass. And typically, by the way, these kill switches are normally on. I make sure I’m careful with my words here. Normally, these kill switches are put on low credit borrowers. Let me say it that way. I think that’s a nice way to say it. So low credit borrowers typically have kill switches because they’re higher risk. I, most of you driving right now or listening to me that have higher credit rating, you’re unlikely to end up with any kind of kill switch on your car. It’s just not going to happen. You’re high credit. You’re low risk. They’re not going to do that. It doesn’t mean that high credit people don’t ever have financial problems, but the risk is much lower, and they know that. So they don’t put kill switches or GPS tracking devices on the car that you buy. They just don’t do that. Now, lower credit rating individuals, of course, because of your low credit, you’re a higher risk, meaning that you’re going to end up with some sort of a disabling device on your vehicle from the lender as a part of, by the way, this is all in the fine print on the paperwork, as a part of you agreeing to borrow money from them or them loaning you money because you’re high risk, it comes with this caveat. There’s a kill switch. So if our state and our fine legislature, who, by the way, are a bunch of morons, if they determine that they know better than anyone else that they’re going to eliminate the ability for these lenders to do this, guess what happens? They’re going to, pardon the pun, kill off lending for less than stellar credit ratings, buy here, pay here lots, and so on. They’ll kill that off and it won’t exist anymore. So really what they’re trying to do is help individuals that have lesser credit that might miss a payment that end up having a kill switch initiated. They’re trying to eliminate the kill switch, but what they’ll do in the process is eliminate that lending altogether. This is how stupid – I’m sorry, I keep using that word, but I have no other word to use. This is how stupid these politicians are. They don’t understand how the real world works. They think by eliminating this, they’re going to help this person that has one of these kill switches because it won’t be able to be initiated if they miss a payment. But what they don’t understand is, well, then where’s the incentive? Where is the collateral? Where is the ability for these lenders to actually then be able to be made whole if somebody misses payments, which they’re never really made whole because typically the car is not worth what the loan is. But anyways, long story short, where’s their incentive to lend if they have no security? I would really like to know from this particular politician. Newman is his name. I would really like to know from him. How he’s going to really help the people that he’s trying to help at the end of the day. He’s not. He’s actually making it worse when it’s all said and done. He’s going to eliminate money. This is Zach, by the way. Sorry, this isn’t a politician. This is consumer advocate Zach Newman with the Community Economic Defense Project. And Zach, you’re an idiot. I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say. You’re an idiot. You have no idea what you’re doing. You don’t have the foggiest idea how this works. you’re actually going to, in doing this, you’re actually going to take this pool of money, these lenders that are willing to lend to less than stellar individuals, you’re going to take that whole lending ability out of the marketplace if you do this. Now, You really have to look a little further, at least I always do. What’s the end goal here, and what does this particular individual, what does Zach Newman with the Community Economic Defense Project, what does he get out of it? Because trust me, he knows as well as I that that’s going to kill lending in that particular sector. So is his plan then to get government to do the lending instead, or you do grants for people to buy cars? I mean, again, what’s his end goal here? Because he knows as well as I that if he gets his way, nobody on the lower credit end of things is buying a car. They’re not going to buy a car. They won’t have the ability to because there won’t be a lender that will allow that. So, again, you always have to wonder, you know, in this particular case, consumer advocate, is he really? Is he? I would love to interview this particular person. Maybe I’ll reach out and see if I can have a conversation on air because I’d really like to know what the end goal here is because by eliminating the variability for these lenders to have security in the thing that they’re lending money on, he’s going to eliminate them lending at all. He has to know that. He’s not that unintelligent. And again, maybe I’m looking at it completely wrong, but I know the business on the auto side pretty well and even how the lending works, and I’m not lying in what I’m saying. If they end up doing this, you will literally kill off all of the buy here, pay here, the lower credit rating entities that are out there that will loan money to people that are looking to buy that type of car. You’ll kill all that off overnight, literally overnight. Veteran Windows and Doors coming up next. Make sure you go right to the source when it comes to Windows and Doors. Saving money, by the way, on Windows and Doors because you cut out that middleman. And Dave can do that. Dave Bancroft, Veteran Windows and Doors. Find him today at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 06 :
Suck it up, Buttercup. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, tomorrow, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush. Myself, Andy, will join me, of course, be my co-host tomorrow. We’ve got an interview with one of our gubernatorial candidates in the 3 o’clock hour, so be sure to tune in then. Otherwise, guys, have a very safe night. Probably not as much traffic tonight as normal, so a lot of you might have even had the day off. Enjoy your evening. Be safe out there. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
you
